Buck Owens – Act Naturally: 1953 – 1964 (2008)

“A fantastic collection. Because I was learning to play pedal steel guitar, I was particularly drawn to the playing of Ralph Mooney, who is all over this music.

“Buck brought a real rock ‘n’ roll energy to country music, and being that he was from Bakersfield and not Nashville, that meant that his sound could be very much his own and could organically develop.

“One of the great things about the music on the box set is that there’s not a lot of backup singers and extraneous strings. The pedal steel of Ralph Mooney is frenetic and always in tune – no easy feat.”